Kevin Magnussen: “I didn’t have a great chance of holding onto that point”

Kevin Magnussen felt eleventh was the best result he could have hoped for in the Italian Grand Prix, and felt that despite being passed by Max Verstappen for tenth late in the day, he did not have a chance to retain the final points paying position.

The Haas F1 Team driver started inside the top ten despite being eliminated in the opening segment in qualifying thanks to the numerous drivers that earned themselves penalties, but was unable to stay there despite his best efforts.

“Stuff happened in the race today, but it didn’t affect me because both Red Bulls got in front anyway,” said Magnussen. “We were just not quick enough this weekend.

“P11 is probably the best result we could’ve scored. It’s still annoying when you’re running in the points the whole race and then you get done at the end. Max (Verstappen) was a lot faster than me. I didn’t have a great chance of holding onto that point.

“Nonetheless, there’s no reason not to try. We tried hard the whole race.”

Team-mate Romain Grosjean could only finish fifteenth after starting at the rear of the field following his crash during qualifying, and lost an element on his front wing on the opening lap that forced him into the pits early.

He also survived his own brush with Verstappen after seeing the Dutchman clip his front wing again as he swept around him into turn one.

“We just had that damage on the front wing in the first corner and from there our race was massively compromised,” said Grosjean. “We tried a few things and we learned about the car.